Will Smriti Irani Come Back With A Bang?

Irani gets the key Information and Broadcasting Ministry, though temporarily for now. It will still bring her cheer as she will be back in limelight, after having been relegated to the background in July last year.

New Delhi: Will Smriti Irani, who had lost limelight after being transferred as the Union Textiles Minister, be back with a bang?

Irani’s hopes have risen, with her being given the temporary charge of Information and Broadcasting portfolio, which has fallen vacant after M Venkaiah Naidu resigned from this critical ministry following his nomination as Vice-Presidential candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

The other portfolio that Naidu was holding, Urban Affairs, will go to Union Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

Both Irani and Tomar will be taking care of the new ministries along with their regular portfolios.

Smriti Irani was moved to the relatively innocuous Textiles Ministry in mid last year after the high profile Human Resources Development Ministry was taken away from her. RSS was said to be unhappy with her as she was not doing enough to bring the “desired” changes in the Education Ministry. There were others who criticised for ‘saffronising” education. She was also criticised for the way she handled the suicide case of Rohit Vemula, a student of the University of Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, Venkaiah Naidu resigned from his ministry on Monday night.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his senior Cabinet colleagues Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are expected to accompany Venkaiah Naidu when he files his nomination on Tuesday for contesting the Vice-Presidential poll on August 5.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, bureaucrat and diplomat, is the consensus candidate of Congress-led opposition, who will be contesting against Venkaiah Naidu.